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 HYMNODY

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HYMNODY

pus, Johannes Zonaras, and Nicephorus Blcmmida. On foreign soil, in Italy, there was, however, in the elc\cnth and twelfth centuries a reflorescence, espe- cially in the Basilian convent at Grottaferrata near Borne, founded by Xilus the Younger in 1005.

V. Hymnody of the West. — Latin Hymnody. — The West began to cultivate religious poetry at the same time as did the East. From the beginning in spite of some similarity the Western poems were of a very different nature and were hymns in the more restricted sense of the word. They were incorporated into all parts of the Liturgy. As hymnody began to decline in the East, it revived in the West becoming more vigorous and fruitful than ever; this was espe- cially so from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. The works of the religious lyric poetry give us an in- structive picture of the culture and spiritual life of the early Christian Age and of the Middle Ages that is wholly unexpected. "In this religious poetry the entire Church co-operated, popes, kings, cardinals, bishops, the brightest lights of science, influential statesmen and ambassadors, humble monks, and .simple schoolmasters The versatility and uni- versality of religious culture, the harmony of men- tal life with the life of feeling lent to religious poetry that richness and depth, that fullness and fervour, which irresist ibly attract even the unbelievers "(Baum- gartner, "Ge-schichte der Weltliteratur ", IV, 441).

(1 ) First Period up to the Carlovingian. Age. — At the cradle of Latin hymnody stands the great opponent of the Arians, St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 366). While exiled to Asia Minor he was inspired by the example of the Easterns to compose hymns, on which a verdict cannot now be pronovmced as we possess only the fragments of three or four. The first celebrates, in asclepiadic alternating with glyeonic metre, the birth of the Son co-equal with the Father: Ante sa;cula qui manens Semperque nate, semper ut est pater. From this abecedary, that is, a hymn in which every strophe begins with the corresponding letter of the alphabet, there are missing the strophes beginning with the letters from U to Z. The .second hymn, also an abecedary, is apparently the song of the new birth of a soul in baptism; the whole song would enable us to ascertain this, but the first five strophes (beginning with A to E) have been lost. The first of the eighteen remaining strophes, which consist each of two iambic senaries, begins;

Fefellit saevam verbum factum et caro. In the third hymn, each strophe of which con- sists of three versus politici, that is, of trochaic tetrameters, is described the "Hostis fallax sa>cu- lorum et dira? mortis artifex " (str. ii, 1) ; in the tenth strophe the single handwriting in which these three hymns are given us breaks off. The language is pro- found and obscure, and it is only too clear that St. Hilary could not have become popular with such hymns. All other hymns ascribed to him must be rejected as spurious with the exception of the hymn to Christ, written in twenty-four strophes: Hymnum dicat turba fratrum, | hymnum cantus per-

sonet, Christo regi concinnantes | laudem demus debitam.

It was reserved for St. .Ambrose (d. 397) to become the real "Father of Latin hymnody". Of his pithy and profound hymns fourteen genuine ones have come down to us in addition to four others which are now used at Tierce, Sext, and None in the Roman Breviary, and the hymn of the virgins "Jesu corona virginum", which are of very doubtful authenticity. Their outer form has been described above. They be- came at once favourites with the people, drew tears of devotion from the great St. Augustine, and were com- mitted to memory by his mother St. Monica and others. They gave a model and form for all the later Breviary hymns, and from the beginning they re-

mained as component parts of the Liturgy, the re- visors of the Breviary having left at least three of them in the prayers of the canonical hours, namely: "-^ilterna Christi munera ", "Sterne rerum conditor" and the inimitably beautiful hymn at Lauds "Splen- dor paterna; gloriEe ". The first strophes of the last- named hymn give an idea of the profound poetry of the Bishop of Milan (note that the two strophes form one sentence) ;

Splendor paternae glorite, Verusque sol, illabere De luce lucem proferens, Micans nitore perpeti Lux lucis et fons luminLs, lubarque sancti spiritus Dies dierum, illuminans Infuncle nostris sensibus. Richard Chenevix Trench, Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, writes of the hymns of St. Ambrose as fol- lows: "After being accu.stomed to the softer and richer strains of the later Christian poets .... it is some little while before one returns with a hearty con- sent and liking to the almost austere simplicity which

characterizes the hymns of St. Ambrose Only

after a while does one learn to feel the grandeur of this unadorned metre, and the profound, though it may have been more instinctive than conscious, wisdom of the poet in choosing it; or to appreciate that noble confidence in the surpassing interest of his theme, which has rendered him indifferent to any but its sim- plest setting forth. It is as though, building an altar to the living God, he would observe the Levitical pre- cept, and rear it of unhewn stones, upon which no tool has been lifted. The great objects of faith in their simplest expression are felt by him so sufficient to stir all the deepest affections of the heart, that any at- tempt to dress them up, to array them in moving language, were merely superfluous. The passion is there, but it is latent and represt, a fire burning in- wardly, the glow of an austere enthusiasm, which reveals itself indeed, but not to every careless be- holder. Nor do we presently fail to observe how truly these poems belonged to their time and to the circumstances under which they were produced, how suitably the faith which was in actual conflict with, and was just triumphing over, the powers of this world, found its utterance in hymns such as these, wherein is no softness, perhaps little tenderness; but a rock-like firmness, the old Roman stoicism trans- muted and glorified into that nobler Christian courage, which encountered and at length overcame tlie world " ("Sacred Latin Poetry", London, 1874, 87 sq.).

Notwithstanding the deep impression made by St. Ambrose's hymns on St. Augustme, the latter did not contribute to hymnody but left us only an interesting rhythmical abecedary composed in the year .393 and in- tended forsingingas the repetition verse proves. This hymn cannot be classed as lyric poetry but is a purely ditlactic exposition of the history and nature of Donat- ism. Nor can Pope Damasus I (fl. 384), to whom a hymn in honour of St. Agatha and one to St. .\ndrew are erroneously ascribed, be counted among hymn writers, although the elegance of expression and pol- ished form of his epigraphic poems display poetic talent. In general it seems that for decades at least, and perhaps longer, after St. .\mbrose no poet essayed to enrich the Latin Liturgy with genuine hymns. The round of ecclesiastical feasts was still small; for the then customary canonical hours, the great feasts of Easter. Christmas, and Epiphany, the festal anniver- saries of the chief Apostles and the Martyrs splendid hymns had been composed by St. Ambro.se which were adopted with enthusiasm wherever hymns were used with the Liturgy. The liturgical need was abund- antly satisfied therewith and perhaps in the beginning no one had the courage to claim for his poems a place in the Liturgy side by side mth those of St. Ambrose. This explams, perhaps, the singular fact that Aure- lius Prudentius (d. after 405), the poet who comes next after St. .\mbrose in point of date, composed hymns only for private devotion, and that in construe-